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Norwich Composers 3

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Further Norwich Composers

 

Group C:  Principal Composers born before 1885 (from c.1745)

 

Thomas Garland

Thomas Garland was baptized in Norwich Cathedral on 5^th July 1731 and died 23^rd February 1808.  He was the son of a tailor who carried on his business in the Lower Close, having moved there with his wife Isabella from Swanton Morley in 1723. 

He was appointed organist of the Cathedral in 1749, aged 18 - from which it is assumed he must previously have been a chorister or organ pupil to have been thought capable of undertaking the role.  He married Rebecca Dyball in St. George's, Colegate on 22^nd June 1761.  From about this time (firstly on 19^th July 1760, then 23^rd July 1763 and subsequently) he began to organise concerts, some at 'Mr Christien's Room' and some at 'the Assembly Room of Chapel Fields House'.   From 1773 the Cathedral hosted annual charity concerts for the benefit of the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital.  In 1807

Mrs. Garland died and was buried in the cloisters. 

 Garland was a pupil of Maurice Greene and composed a Funeral Procession and Dirge for a production of Romeo and Juliet, which was enacted in the Theatre for the week beginning 20^th February 1758.   A few of his works were printed: there is a setting of Come Holy Ghost in Burnett's Sacred Harmony (1865).  A Volume of the Norwich Catch Club contained Go South Gals by him and Dr. Mann knew eight of his anthems existed in Manuscript books in the Cathedral.  Otherwise, little of his music has survived. 

An anonymous ear-witness account of the standard of the Cathedral choir and its music under Garland about 1795 is cited by Watkins Shaw,

'Well do I remember the delight with which I used to listen to the Service in Norwich Cathedral, when the minor canons, eight in number, filed off into their stalls, Precentor Millard at their head, whose admirable style and correct singing I have never heard surpassed; Browne's majestic tenor; Whittingham's sweet alto; and Hansell's sonorous bass; while Walker's silver tone, and admirable recitation found its way into every corner of the huge building.  Vaughan was then the first boy who acquired his musical knowledge and pure style under his master, Beckwith.  Frequently it would happen that the entire music of the day was written by members of the choir, for Garland, the organist (a pupil of Greene) was a composer of no mean talent.' 

Probably, Garland's greatest significance was to identify, work with and encourage outstanding musicians to reach their full potential.  John 'Christmas' Beckwith was his Master of the Choristers, he heard the boy Zechariah Buck singing in the street and told him 'you must come and be my choir boy', and he taught James Hook. B

Bibliography

• Peter Aston and Tom Roast - Music in the Cathedral, in Norwich Cathedral Church, City and Diocese 1096-1996, ed. Ian Atherton and others.
• N. Boston - The Musical History of Norwich Cathedral (Norwich 1963), originally published in Reports of the Friends of Norwich Cathedral 1938-9.

• Watkins Shaw - The Succession of Organists at the Chapel Royal and the cathedrals of England and Wales from 1538 (1991).

James Hook 

James Hook was born in Norwich on 3^rd June 1746 and died in 1827 in Boulogne.  He was born in the parish of St. John Maddermarket, the son of James Hook, razor grinder and cutler.  He had a disability, being born with a clubfoot, but after a number of operations, 'he could walk in a limping manner tolerably well' (Dr. Mann). 

Taught by Garland for a while, he was something of a child prodigy, being able to play the harpsichord at the age of 4, performing concertos in public at 6, and before he was 8 composing songs and his first opera.  Although the music is lost, this was considered by connoisseurs to be an 'extraordinary instance of infantile genius' (Mann). 

In 1758 Hook's father died, so his mother carried on the cutlery business.  James continued performing concertos (from 13^th November 1756 at benefit concerts), teaching, composing, transcribing music and tuning keyboard instruments.  Like Morley before him, he went to London (some time between June 1763 and February 1764).  There he made a name for himself as an organist and composer of light attractive music, especially songs (most notably being employed at Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens from 1774 as organist and composer), and as a teacher and performer of keyboard concertos. 

It is estimated his income from teaching was over £600 p.a.  He continued to return to the Norwich area to perform concerts in which he played many of his own compositions until about the time of his Vauxhall Gardens appointment.  He was also in demand to 'open' new organs in London and the surrounding counties. 

On 29^th May 1766 Hook married Elizabeth Jane Madden at St. Pancras' Old Church in London.  She was a talented artist and painter and provided verses for some of his Vauxhall songs and a libretto for an opera The Double Disguise (1784).  His son James (born 1772, died 5^th February 1828) provided some librettos, as did his second son Theodore Edward (born 22^nd September 1788, died 24^th August 1841) for eight operas and the words for many of Hook's songs.  Hook's wife died on 18^th October 1805.  On the 4^th November 1806 Hook married his second wife, Harriet Horncastle James (died 5^th April 1873). 

Hook wrote over 2000 songs.  The majority were composed for specific singers.  They were published as single copies or in an annual collection (from 1767) -the latter easier than the former, which use operatic coloratura.  The autograph manuscripts show Hook's meticulous care in noting all the details of singer, performance, date etc.  His most famous song is The Lass of Richmond Hill.   Hook stands as the exemplar for many minor Norwich-born composers who wrote songs in this period for performance here.

Hook is also noteworthy for his keyboard concertos.  He utilised the newly-developed pianoforte in his compositions.  In 1820 he unexpectedly left his position at Vauxhall Gardens.  It is not known why. 

Relevant Recordings

• English 18^th-century Keyboard Concertos  (Hyperion) CDA66700 or (Helios) CDH55341.
• English Classical Clarinet Concertos  (Helios) CDH55261.
• Fairest Isle (Hyperion) CDA67115. contains Hook's song The Emigrant
• O tuneful voice (Hyperion) CDA66497  includes Hook's song The Lass of Richmond Hill

Acknowledgment

My thanks to Keith at Prelude Records in Norwich for his advice on the above "Discography".

Bibliography

• New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians [NGDM], 2^nd Edition (2001), Ed. S. Sadie, Volume 11 (article by Pamela McGairl).

John 'Christmas' Beckwith 

John Beckwith, eldest son of Edward and Mary Beckwith, was born in Norwich on 25^th December 1759 and died here on 3^rd June 1809.  The discrepancy between his age at death (and birth year) given in the Norwich Chronicle (49 = 1759) and that given in the registers of St. Peter Mancroft where he was buried (58 =1750) has now been decided in favour of the former with the discovery during recent alterations to the Church of a memorial slab in the floor of its nave.  This gives the date of his birth as 25 December 1759. The name 'Christmas' used for his burial seems to have been no more than a nickname: his compositions simply name him as John, and Magdalen College registers call him John William Beckwith.  For most of his life he was referred to as John Beckwith junior to distinguish him from his uncle (John Beckwith senior, 1728-1800). Only in a few sources in the last years of his life was he referred to as 'Christmas' - possibly to distinguish him from his son, John Charles.  It has since become the name by which he is best known.

John Beckwith became an outstanding organist.  In August 1783 William Crotch met him, 'he was now assistant to Dr. Hayes.  He presented me with D. Scarlatti's Lessons and I well remember him playing the Cat's Fugue in a most masterly style.'   The anonymous earwitness in 1795 (qv. Garland) described him as 'a most accomplished extempore player on the organ' and the Gresham Professor of Music, Dr. Edward Taylor, once declared, 'I have never heard Dr. Beckwith's equal upon the organ'.

Beckwith studied at Magdalen College, Oxford, from 1775.  In 1784 he returned to Norwich to take up the post of assistant master of the Cathedral choristers, a position apparently created for him by the Dean and Chapter.  He took an active part in local concert life and (with Michael Sharp) organised (and was festival organist in) the Grand Musical Festivals held in Norwich in 1788, 1790 and 1802.   He succeeded his father as organist of St. Peter Mancroft in January 1794, retaining this position when he became Organist and Assistant Master of the Choristers in the Cathedral in 1808 (appointed 12^th August).  He took the Oxford DMus degree in 1803.  He died of paralysis on 3^rd June 1809 and was interred under the organ at St. Peter Mancroft 'agreeable to his own desire'.   Beckwith married Mary Elizabeth Cox of Oxford in April 1785 and they had 3 children.

Beckwith was in great demand to 'open' new organs in Norwich (eg St.Andrews, 28^th October 1808) and towns around (cf. Hook).  He had a great reputation as an extemporizer.  The Gentleman's Magazine for 1809 extolled the 'genius with which he conceived . . and . . the style in which he performed his inimitable voluntaries'.   He left a number of voluntaries, keyboard sonatas (and a concerto), glees, songs and anthems, most notably The Lord is Very Great from his 6 Anthems in Score (1785).  These are 'innocently melodious'.

He introduced the first Sung Service at St. Peter Mancroft in 1792 and his The First Verse of Every Psalm of David with an Ancient and Modern Chant (published in London in 1808) contains the first idea of marking the psalms (in red) so that 'the choir might recite as one person'.  It also notes that he was occupied for up to 14 hours daily 'in the most slavish part of my profession'.      

Relevant Recordings

• Six Voluntaries for the Organ (1780) may be heard on the Werner Icking Music Archive - icking-music-archive.org/ByComposer/Beckwith.php
• Historic Organ Sound Archive East Anglia CD - see www.bios.org.uk

Bibliography

• Tom Roast - The Beckwiths of Norwich: in British Music, the Journal of the British Music Society, Volume 18 (1996).
• NGDM Vol. 3, and see under Thomas Garland (above).

• Norwich Chronicle extracts were collected together under the title Norfolk Annals by Charles Mackie; this is available on line as an Ebook.

John Charles Beckwith 

John Charles Beckwith was born in Norwich 1788 and died here in October 1819.  He was the eldest son of John 'Christmas' and Elizabeth Beckwith. He was organist at the Octagon Chapel and then at both St. Peter Mancroft and the Cathedral (succeeding his father who also held both posts concurrently) from 1809 - 1819.  His Cathedral appointment dates from 4^th September 1809.  Like his father he conducted and directed the Norwich Festival (eg. 4^th November 1809, 14^th - 19^th October 1817) and 'opened' organs (eg. in Swaffham church 26^th March 1818).   From 1817, John Charles began to be incapacitated through illness (Zechariah Buck, assistant cathedral organist, exercising full responsibility); he died in October 1819.  There is some divergence about the exact date.  

It is conventionally given as 19^th October but the Norwich Chronicle gives it as 5^th October, aged 32, and states that his 'remains were interred on the 11^th in a grave beside that of his late father beneath the organ loft of St. Peter's Church'.      

He wrote an account of his father's life, which was included in T.D. Eaton's Musical Criticism and Biography (1872). 

Bibliography

See previous entry above. 

William Crotch (as musician)

William Crotch was born in Greens Lane, Norwich, on 5^th July 1775 and died at Taunton, 29^th December 1847. 

He was the son of a carpenter who loved music and had built himself an organ in which the child began to show an interest when little more than 18 months old.  When two years and three months old he had taught himself to play God Save the King on this instrument and a picture of him playing still exists, as does one of him playing the organ in the Chapel Royal at St. James' Palace aged 3 - which was before the King. His mother encouraged him in these tours (cf. Mozart).  By the age of 7 he was playing the violin and piano.

He went to Cambridge as assistant to Dr. Randall, the organist at King's College (1786), then to Oxford (in 1788) where he became organist of Christ Church (1790), Professor of Music in the University (1797), taking his DMus in 1799 and conducting music room concerts.  Towards the end of 1805 he went to London.

Crotch was one of a number of organists who from 1809 gave a series of performances of the works of J.S. Bach at Surrey Chapel, Blackfriars Road, London.  What we now call the 'organ recital' had its British beginnings in this non-conformist place of worship. 

Crotch was also a painter: some 1200 of his paintings and drawings are in the Norfolk & Norwich Record Office. 

In 1812 his oratorio Palestine was produced - the first moderately successful oratorio composed in England since Handel's day.  Crotch never printed the score: instead he charged 200 guineas for loan of the parts and his own attendance as conductor.  He became the first Principal of the Royal Academy of Music in London in 1822, making the composition of church music an important part of its teaching.  He resigned in 1832.

In 1842 he published his Rules for Chanting the Psalms.  It is not, perhaps, wholly ironic that several of his Anglican chants are the only pieces composed by him that are still in regular use.  He also composed organ concertos, symphonies, songs, anthems, 3 oratorios, and arranged music for piano.   With his painting, lecturing and teaching he did not fulfil his early playing and composing promise.  He died suddenly at the home of his son, the Rev. W.R. Crotch. elevant

Recordings:

• Crotch - Symphony in F etc. (Unicorn-Kanchana) W 255688, Milton Keynes Symphony Orchestra, Hilary Davan Wetton. 

 Bibliography

• See above NGDM Vol. 6; with use of the HOASM website article.

   

Zechariah Buck

Zechariah Buck was born in Norwich on 9^th September 1798 and died on 5^th August 1879 in Newport, Essex.  His father was a tradesman in the parish of St. Peter-per-Mountergate. 

He was admitted to the Cathedral choir on 10^th September 1807, having been heard singing by Thomas Garland (qv.,see above).  After ceasing to be a chorister (in 1816) he acted as assistant organist to John Beckwith and, on the latter's death, became Organist and Master of the Choristers on

15^th October 1819.  'Dr. Buck's talent for training boys' voices was simply outstanding' (Alfred Gaul) although he was 'a very strict disciplinarian'.  He yet had a kindly disposition, as Dr. Mann noted.  The result of his training was that Jenny Lind, visiting Norwich in 1847, said she had 'never heard children sing so well'.  

He was particularly insistent on bringing out the meaning of the words.  He was always on the lookout for boys with potentially outstanding voices, however 'poor and ragged', and would train such 'Trial-boys' at his own expense until they merited a place among the choristers.  Perhaps he was mindful of his own opportunity when heard by Garland. 

As an organist he mastered the techniques of pedal playing, although there were no pedals on the Norwich Cathedral organ for some years.

In 1824 he aided George Smart in managing the first Norfolk and Norwich Triennial Festival.  In August 1853 he received the complimentary degree of Doctor of Music from the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Summer.  For the last twenty-two years of his tenure of office, Buck rarely played the organ: these duties being carried out by Edward Bunnett (born Shipdham, Norfolk, 1834) who 'ably discharged practically the chief duties of cathedral organist'.

Buck had very strong likes and dislikes: he did not like Honorary Canons and there is a case of Buck putting on an anthem called Lord, how are they increased that trouble me at a service when some new Honorary Canons were to be installed.  Annoyed that a family by the name of Waters inevitably arrived late, Buck arranged that on one occasion they were met by the choir singing Save me O God, for the waters are come in.

Buck was not a very prolific composer, but he did write a great many chants (found in Dr. Bunnett's Sacred Harmony 1865), 5 hymn tunes, settings of the Sanctus and Responses in G and F, an Evening Service in A and 6 Anthems including I heard a voice from heaven (1849) and Have Mercy.  

Buck resigned his appointment as Organist and Master of the Choristers from September 1877, his last service being September 17^th 1877 at which his evening service in A was sung.  He went to live with his son, Dr. Henry J. Buck, at Belmont House in Newport, Essex, where he died, aged 81.

Bibliography  

• See above.   Much of Frederic G. Kitton's biography, A Centenary Memoir (1899) is to be found on the website - www.ukcathedrallinks.org.uk

 

William Richard Bexfield 

W. R. Bexfield was born in Norwich on 27^th April 1824 and died in London on 29^th October 1853.

Bexfield became a chorister at Norwich Cathedral where Zechariah Buck was so impressed by his talents (e.g. an anthem for eight voices composed when he was aged 11) that he took him as an articled pupil at the age of 14. He became a proficient organist, playing Bach's fugues at 17 years of age.

In 1845 he was appointed organist of St. Botolph's, Boston and in 1848 became organist at St. Helen's, Bishopsgate in London.  He took the Oxford BMus in 1846 and the Cambridge MusD in 1849.   He played some of his concert fugues for organ at the Crystal Palace during the Great Exhibition of 1851 creating a sensation, particularly with an improvisation he called Representation of a Storm.  

His oratorio Israel Restored was performed by the Norwich Choral Society in October 1851 and on 22^nd September 1852 at the Norwich Music Festival. It had been given great advance publicity and attracted much attention because it seemed to be placed in rivalry with Pierson's Jerusalem. 

The latter's work was more original and more popular with the Norwich audiences and national Press; Bexfield's was conservative, containing fugal choruses along Handelian lines and even a fully-fledged French Overture. It was by no means a worthless composition and was well received when revived at the Royal Albert Hall in London in 1880. 

Bexfield was undeniably a gifted composer and 'it is believed that had he lived he would have been another Purcell in Church Music' (Kitton).  He died an early death in London in 1853 and his remains were interred in the Churchyard of St. Mary's, Paddington Green.  There a tombstone was erected to his memory with an inscription at the base reading, 'A few brother-professors have erected this stone in token of their admiration of his great talents and many virtues'.    

Apart from the oratorio Israel Restored, Bexfield composed some attractive songs (words as well as music), church music and learned but heavy fugues. 

These works were all published in London - 8 chorales (1845), 6 songs (1847), 7 Church Anthems (for 5 to 8 voices, 1850) and A Set of Concert Fugues.  In addition 2 separate anthems, 2 glees and a trio exist in manuscript.  Bexfield's Musica di Camera Opus 4 is in a collection of music made by Dr. Mann.  It contains 16 pieces: 10 solo songs, many with words by Lord Byron including one on the death of his cousin Margaret, a duet, chorus and round with words from Twelfth Night and obbligato parts for violin (the Kitten's Scherzo), bassoon, clarionet and piano - all attractive and competent.     

Bibliography  

• NGDM Vol.3.
• Frederic G. Kitton  A Centenary Memoir, Zechariah Buck.
• Norwich musicians compiled by Arthur Henry Mann.

 

Frederick Cook Atkinson

F. C. Atkinson was born in Norwich on 21^st August 1841 and died in East Dereham, Norfolk, on 30^th November 1896.

Atkinson was an articled pupil of Zechariah Buck and took the Cambridge degree of MusB in 1867.  He was an assistant organist at Norwich Cathedral until appointed to Manningham (St. Luke's?) Church, Bradford, Yorkshire. 

In 1881 he was appointed organist of Norwich Cathedral, resigning four years later in favour of musical work at Cheltenham.  After a few months he took up the post of organist at St. Mary's Parish Church, Lewisham near London.  Later he returned to Norfolk and died at East Dereham in 1896.

Atkinson's compositions include services, anthems, songs and a volume of Masonic Music.  His most well-known hymn tune is the 10.10.10.10. metre Morecambe (sometimes known as Hellespont) which is variously set, most usually to O God our Father, who dost make us one but also to My goal is God Himself  (Mission Praise) or Spirit of God, descend upon my heart. 

It would also fit H.F.Lyte's famous hymn Abide with me, the hymn he wrote in the year he died, 1847.

F.C. Atkinson was the last Norwich-born person to be appointed organist of the Cathedral.  No Organist of Norwich Cathedral since has come from Norwich. 

Bibliography

• See above under Garland.  
• Frederic G. Kitton  A Centenary Memoir, Zechariah Buck.   

 

Arthur Henry Mann

A. H. Mann was born in Norwich on 16^th May 1850 and died in Cambridge on  19^th November 1929. 

 Mann became a chorister at Norwich Cathedral aged 10 and afterwards an articled pupil to Zechariah Buck for 5 years.  The choir school registers for 1860-62 contain entries such as 'Mann and Butler naughty at Church' (2^nd April 1860) and 'Mann gave much trouble this evening' (5^th May 1862).  His own reflection of Norwich was, 'The City . . . I spent a wonderfully happy boyhood in' (1903 Lecture). 

Mann was appointed organist of St. Peter's Church, Wolverhampton in 1870, Tettenhall Parish Church in 1871, Beverley Minster in 1875, before being appointed to King's College, Cambridge in 1876 where he stayed for the rest of his life.  He took the FRCO diploma in 1871 followed by the Oxford degrees of BMus (1874) and DMus (1882).   At the service in 1899 in Norwich Cathedral for the dedication of the new re-built 5 manual organ, he was the one to play the instrument.  He received the honorary degree of MA from Cambridge in 1910 and was elected a fellow of King's College on 25^th November 1921.  A memoir, Arthur Henry Mann, was printed privately in the College in 1930.

When Mann went to King's College, Cambridge, the chapel choir was the worst of the three college chapel choirs that maintained daily services.  Fifty years later it had become, and continues to be, the most famous in the world.  Mann accomplished this transformation by persuading the college to establish a choir school and replacing the lay clerks gradually with academical clerks (or choral scholars), and by a winning combination of personal qualities - ruthlessness, tact, personal kindliness and singleness of purpose - that he may have seen modelled in Zechariah Buck. 

Mann was also a composer of sacred choral music and hymn tunes, most notably for the first Festival of Nine Lessons & Carols in 1919 he harmonised the tune Irby used for the carol Once in Royal David's City that has since become the standard.  He devoted himself, too, to a wide range of scholarly activities, especially concerning Handel, hymn books and East Anglian music and musicians.  It is thanks to his activities that we have a considerable amount of historical material on which to draw that would otherwise have been lost.

Bibliography

• NGDM Vol. 15.
• See above under Garland.  
• Frederic G. Kitton  A Centenary Memoir, Zechariah Buck.
• Arthur Henry Mann  - Old Norwich cathedral musicians: text of a lecture given by Dr. A.H. Mann, 5 March 1903.                    

 

Vaughan Brooks

August 2011   

Supported by HM Treasury's Invest to Save Budget